A few days later, after licking my wounded ego and attempting to begin a new draft, I checked in with Kevin. The dynamics of the story seem to be changing as I worked on it, but Kevin talks me through some of it; leave the “wanna-be detective” stuff; Concentrate on making the opening more “positive, less repressive for Pee-Wee” (I have no idea what this means today. I probably had little idea what it meant then). Trying to juggle “pretend detective,” “ulterior motives,” “misinformation at the start,” had me in despair. “The whole thing sucks but what can I do? I’m on pins and needles trying to write what’s in someone else’s head.”

I still couldn’t get a bearing on what they liked about the script; I only saw what they didn’t want and add and change. I noted I was outlining the story again, it being too much to just dive into the script.

Oh, then he’s something I remember, but I had forgotten when it happened. I wrote, “Have to think about the elves’ personalities. May have to promote the second string gag elves (Thistle, Elfis, Yuppie) rather than resort to their suggestions.”

This actually turned into a big deal. My original elves were indeed, kinda cookie cutter, exposition devices. But at various points in the script I would introduce an elf just for some kind of gag, duty or name pun. I had a scientist elf, Thistle, a snippy elf, Yuppie, an elf that acted like Elvis, and an elf with a southern accent solely to allow me to make a South Pole joke. These were each a one-off, a black out joke and we move on. But each gag gave me a seed to grow a personality from. These guys would replace my bland, straight-man elves. That was a huge improvement.

A couple of days later, I called Kevin again. I was plagued by doubt now. Not proceeding well at all. Analysis paralysis; I was overthinking things, not knowing which way to go because I was so worried about the committee looking over my shoulder.

Kevin reassured me a bit. “Just keep to the spirit of the original premise. Just add the junk they want.” Something sparked here, again, elf related. Came up with additional elf names, which I would need as red herrings to go with some of the plot changes the committee wanted. It was a start, or rather, a re-start.